Introduction

Drift is proud to introduce its new leverage system with the launch of per-market leverage, giving traders more flexibility and precise control.

Drift has long been a pioneer of DeFi innovation and have offered features like yield on collateral, multi-asset collateral support for perpetual trading unlike any other venue. Traders can use assets like SOL, BTC, USDC, or dSOL as collateral to open positions, while earning APY regardless of whether those assets are actively traded or simply deposited. This design delivers greater capital efficiency.

The mission has always been to deliver a high-performance trading experience on-chain, combining the flexibility, speed, and tools pro traders expect with the transparency and self-custody of DeFi.

How Account-Level Leverage works today

In the current account-level leverage system:

• Leverage aggregates at the account level. If you’ve already traded 15x leverage on BTC, and then open a 10x trade on SOL, your overall account leverage will increase to 25x. Example:
  • You open a 15x BTC position. By default, your entire collateral is used for this BTC position.
  • You then open a 10x SOL position. Now, the same collateral is shared between both the BTC and SOL positions, increasing your overall account leverage to 25x.
• The slider bar represents how much leverage you’re pulling against our total available collateral.
• Risk profile: This makes it easier to apply higher leverage across your portfolio, but one over-leveraged trade can affect your whole account since everything is cross-margin.

This design is simple and beginner-friendly, but it doesn’t give advanced traders the level of control they expect when fine-tuning strategies.

Introducing Per-Market Leverage

With per-market leverage system, traders unlock a new layer of control:

• Custom caps per market. You can choose different max leverage settings for different markets — for example, 15x BTC, 25x SOL, 5x WIF — tailoring leverage to your preferences and the liquidity of each asset. Example:
  • You can allocate 10% of your collateral to open a 15x BTC position,
  • then use 50% for a 25x SOL position, and
  • the remaining 40% for a 5x WIF position.
• The slider bar redefined. The slider now represents the percentage of available collateral that you want to allocate per position.
• Refined risk control. While still cross-margin, this approach gives traders the ability to run aggressive scalps in one market and conservative swings in another, all within the same account.

Liquidation could still happen across all positions within the same account, if not managed properly. Isolated Margin is planned for a future release for users who want to segregate risk per position.

Why this matters and why is it better

Per-market leverage system is a step forward in making Drift the most professional-grade DEX in the ecosystem.

This new change will enable:

• Better capital efficiency: Ability to manage collateral usage per position and have better control over your capital
• Familiarity for pros: Per-market leverage framework is already used on top CEXs, making it easier for seasoned traders to transition without a learning curve.
• Advanced strategies unlocked: This will enable several different strategies like high-leverage scalping and conservative long-term trading coexist within the same account.

Looking Ahead

Per-market leverage framework marks a major milestone in Drift’s journey toward delivering a full-suite, professional trading experience entirely on-chain. While preserving DeFi transparency, Drift is bridging the gap between CEX performance and DEX sovereignty.

Got questions?

Drift is building with you, and for you.

If you have questions, suggestions, or want to discuss the update, feel free to  learn more via Docs or join the conversation:

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